this is cnn newsroom. i'm suzanne malveaux. and first, the meteor that rocketed down from space today tore across the skies over southern russia. this is what it looked like. pretty amazing pictures of this streak of bright light. that is actually the meteor burning up. the shockwave triggered a huge sonic boom. listen to it. a terrifying blast. shattered the windows across the area. more than 1,000 were hurt including 200 children. most of the injuries from that flying glass that you saw there. want to bring this chad myers talking about how this happened. what actually took place? why did it get so close? >> well, what it was was an asteroid that was out there. turned into a meteor when it hit the atmosphere. and then probably even rained down meteorites now down on the ground. it is not the asteroid that is thousand g thousand g now getting close today. the big one is coming in from the south. this thing, and that's about the size of a 15-story apartment building in new york city. it's big. now, this thing is the minivan tha